USC v. USC

I mentioned last week that I felt some at USC were pushing water polo’s success a bit too hard to mask some other sports (football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball) recent struggles.

My question for you is will it improve? Baseball seems a mess. Football has plenty of doubters. I hear great things about Andy Enfield but he remains unproven other than those two weeks in March. Is Cynthia Cooper the safest bet at this point to resurrect a program?

9 thoughts on “USC v. USC

  1. I know that there are a few expensive private schools that do OK with baseball, but the 11.7 scholarship limit is a killer. Also the Arizona Republic newspaper just had an article how it’s hurting a lot of really good high school players, since there are only 4 schools, 2 public, that have baseball in Arizona. They need to go out of state, and with a partial scholarship with out-of-state tuition, it makes it difficult to afford.

    • Well Stanford & Rice have produced national champions and they’re private. The limits have been there a long time – good coach produces a good team and a good team draws players. It is as simple as that.

      • With the strong Stanford endowment that allows many students in families making less than six figures attend for free, that makes it easier for the Cardinal to compete in the sport. How many walk-ons do you know can afford a $60K tuition + fees + books + room&board?

          • To most people. But the NCAA does not consider it an athletically-based scholarship which counts towards the 11+ limit. Back in the day when it was “non-scholarship,” UC Davis had about 65 or so of its football players on somesort of non-athletic funding which did not count. NCAA has funny and stupid rules.

      • USC annually loses 3-4 prospects to the pros. It’s hard to be competitive when your best players bolt for the $. And that is the best for the kids, because if they are smart, they get college $ in the contract and if they wash out after 2-3 years, they still get $ for college and they can still play other sports and/or get their degree and work for Enterprise or State Farm…

  2. As Rick notes baseball will improve, but the economics keep it from being a consistent contender.

    Basketball will improve simply because Enfiled > O’Neill. For that matter, a paper clip > O’Neill.

    Football will improve because the D will be better (post-Kiffin) and with Justin Davis and Ty Isaac, they might be able to run the ball. Whether it reaches Pete Carroll levels of success, it won’t happen until it is safely post-Sanctions and post-Kiffin.

    As for womem’s b-ball, I have no idea.

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